Tips on Potty Training a puppy anyone?

We have a little Frenchie/Boston Terrier puppy we’re trying to house train and need a few pointers.

First of all does anyone paper train their dogs? We’re sort of torn as to which would be a better choice and our Vet wasn’t really helpful. She’ll only grow to about 20 pounds so shes not going to have massive poops. We have a pretty large house so I’m not sure if its smart to do in case it takes her forever to get to her potty place. But we also work all day long and if its snowing or raining out I’m worried she wont go out (which could be a completely irrational worry but forgive me i’m new at this). Also we do travel often and she will be coming with us so would it be better if we just put her paper down and she’ll automatically know where to go wherever we are.

Secondly shes alright right now at going outside but we usually have to drag her out and really coax her to go! How do we get her to go to the door every time she needs to go? If we don’t drag her out she just goes wherever she is. She also doesn’t poop everytime she eats which everyone has told me shes supposed to do.

Right now since she is only 14 weeks we have her crate where she sleeps and then in a confined area outside the crate we have a puppy pad which she goes on when we are at work and overnight which she seems to be doing alright on. Not sure if this is ok to do….

No, don’t do paper training. You have to re-train them all over to go outside if you do. Take her out first thing in the morning on her leash and take treats with you. Walk with her for a while. If she pees, wait until she’s done to react and tell her good girl and praise her ultra enthusiatically, but don’t scare her and don’t interrupt her peeing.Give her treats right away. Take her out every few hours and 20-30 mins after she eats and do the same thing. When she has an accident, interrupt her and say NOOO NOOOO and pick her up and put her right on the grass and wait for her to go if possible. Do not yell at her or correct her if you see she’s had an accident. If you do not catch her in the act you cannot correct it because she’s long forgotten about what she was doing. Clean up any messes with enzyme cleanser so she can’t smell it again. You can also put a stake or hockey stick in the yard and take her to pee on that one spot so she can smell it there every time. We had another dog come into the yard and pee, because of course our dog would want to pee right where the other dog had peed right?

To get her to ask to go out, see if she learns to paw at the door herself, or whine. You can also attach bells on a rope to the door for her to paw. Jingle them before you open the door.

If it were me, I would start crate training only and totally eliminate the potty pad. I just would want my dog trained to go pee outside and not inside on a pee pad that I would have ton constantly pick up. I only know of one other person who used puppy potty pads, and it took them 3 years to get their dog to eventually do his business outside.

Do you have any puppy classes your can enroll in your area? They will surely have suggestions for house training.

Basically, as a puppy, what we did was take our dog our every 30 minutes or so, and stand out there until she peed. While she was peeing, we would tell her to “hurry up”, so she started to associate those words with going to the bathroom outside. When she does go outside, be sure to priase her lots!!

If you catch your puppy going to the bathroom in the house, immediately say “No!” loudly, and pick her up and take her outside and sit her on the grass. While you are at work, leave her in her crate. Most likely, she won’t pee inside her crate, unless she is left for too long.

I wouldn’t use the pads or paper. Make it very clear to the puppy: pottying is only done outside. If you see her start to go, shreak or yell NO!! to interrupt her and immediately take her outside – carry her if needed. If she finishes outside, praise like crazy!

Keep taking her out every hour or so at least, and again, praise and treat if she goes. Do not wait for her to tell you she needs to go out, she’s too young for that. If you can’t watch her, put her in her pen or crate. Preventing accidents is really the name of the game. If you find a puddle later on, don’t scold her for it as she won’t connect the two. Dogs live in the moment.

@HappySky7: Thats a great idea with the stake in the grass! That way we can take that stake everywhere with us and hopefully she would associate it. I like the bell idea too. Simple but effective.

@Sea_Ashley: Thanks! Ya we do but we had to wait until she had her second vaccinations tp take her and now they are full until the end of the month!

@Westwood: We do try and take her out every 45-1hr when we’re home but i swear she is so stubborn lol must be the bulldog part in her.

@leembee: Ya thats my main question now….during the day what the heck can we do? We moved recently to the city we are in and don’t know too many ppl to take her out so shes obviously going to pee/poop in her crate which is terrible to sit in for 6 hours. What can we do if we don’t know anyone? Same thing at night…do we wake up every 2 hours to take her out to pee?

@mrsalexander: I wouldnt do paper training. They will being to think it is ok to go to the bathroom inside the house. If you can….with the pee and poo inside the home…pick it up and put it outside. Spread it around. I find that dogs like to go to the bathroom where they usually do over and over again and they can tell this by the smell. So try that if its possible. As for going to the door….idk. M dog was ‘trained’ by our old dog so the monkey see monkey do thing.

Keep in mind that the general rule for how long a puppy can “hold it” is 1 hour for each month of age +1. So if you have an two month old puppy, the maximum amount that it should have to be in it’s crate before being let outside is 3 hours at a time. At night is different, but still don’t expect her to hold it for a full eight hours yet. She should be waking you up at least once a night for the first week or so.

If you can’t get home in the middle of the day, there are dog walking services that specifically have puppy packages where they just come and let her out.

We are in this process right now! We started in puppy pads because a) I may or may not have bought our litle guy while we were living in a hotel room while the husband was training for a new job and b) he was six weeks old and had to go ALL the time, so it was more convenient for me. Last week, we switched him to outside and he took to it exceptionally well. He hasn’t had any accidents today and we are teaching him that before he gets to go out, he must sit in front of the door. He will now let us know when he needs to go by going and sitting by the back door (he is nine weeks old).

Byour fears of your pup not wanting to go outside in bad weather are valid, he will need to get used to it. Also, I read that you should not let them have free roam of your house until they have not had an accident for months, and are not chewing on everything. Right now, pur pup gets to play in the living room and kitchen and that is it.

I am heading out the door right now, so I will try to remember to comment later with a longer post. Do NOT paper or pad train her…but have you looked into doggy litter boxes? They make some that are like a cat litter box only a big bigger, but they also make trays that are like a patch of artificial grass with a collection tray underneath. If you plan on traveling a lot, it might be something to consider, because she would be able to use it in a hotel room, etc.

@runningcali:he was six weeks old and had to go ALL the time, so it was more convenient for me.

YIKES! A puppy should not be away from mom at six weeks! They should be with their mom and littermates until AT LEAST eight weeks, with many experts suggesting that ten to twelve weeks is actually preferable.

Exactly what Jesssa said re: bringing pee/poop outside when you can. When we first got our dog at 8 weeks, we had to bring him outside every 20-30 minutes when he wasn’t in his crate because he would just stand up from his spot on the floor and pee! It was nuts. He was, however, very good about not going in the crate — make sure the crate is just big enough for her to turn around in. it helps if it had a divider so that you can make it a little bigger as she grows.

When our pup would go in the house, we would immediately pick it up with paper towels and bring it (and him) outside so that he would associate the smell with the grass. make sure you also have a verbal cue — we would tell Ryder to “get busy” and when he would, we would say it again and reward him with treats.

As far as training the dog to let you know when they have to go, make sure you’re consistent with the exit that you use to go outside when it’s time to get busy. We use the back door only. He eventually figured it out and goes to the back door and waits until we bring him out. Dogs are very intelligent and eager to learn.

Also, with crate training, Ryder was in his when we were gone and at night until he was about a year old. He was also crated if I had to clean one part of the apartment (like the bathroom) and couldn’t keep an eye on him. You have to make sure the pups are safe and that they aren’t peeing anywhere. Even now at 5, he still doesn’t get access to the bedrooms or bathrooms when we aren’t home.

Good luck with training and congrats on the new member of the family 🙂

@mrsalexander: First off congrats on your addition to your family! SECONDLY do not get discouraged! I have a min pin and it seems smaller dogs take longer to potty train. It takes a LOT of repetition and you need to find a solid reward for good pottying. They can be stubborn and it takes a lot of work. Your puppy is still very young. There is still a long way to go yet. Paper training should be your last resort.

I had a Chihuahua that literally could NOT be potty trained. After a year we still couldn’t potty train him, after successfully training several dogs. As a last resort we switched to a litter box with newspaper in it and just like that he got it.